BERLIN, Germany — September 30, 2013 — SEMI and VDMA have announced the release of the Total Cost of Ownership in PV Manufacturing Guide. The Guide was jointly prepared by SEMI and VMDA and examines strategy-oriented cost management including detailed life-cycle models, such as total cost of ownership and life cycle costs.

SEMI and VDMA compiled the Guide to support the PV industry in calculation of cost of ownership to better understand all of the data points when making purchasing discussions. The Guide provides a base level between equipment supplier and end users that will allow them to adjust parameters when making cost of ownership calculations. The Guide aims to significantly reduce miscommunication between suppliers and manufacturers.

Dr. Florian Wessendorf, VDMA, said, “Standards and standardization belong to the core strategic management toolsets utilized in every industry. Standardization facilitates the technical and economic cooperation at national, local and international levels. Certainly, this also applies for total cost of ownership calculations in the PV industry.”

Mr. Stephan Raithel, SEMI Europe, stated, “Acquisition costs alone only contribute to a fraction of the total costs that accrue across the entire lifetime of investment goods, operating costs and their proportion to the acquisition costs must be taken into account to get the full COO picture.”

SEMI is the global industry association serving the nano- and microelectronics manufacturing supply chains. Our 1,900 member companies are the engine of the future, enabling smarter, faster and more economical products that improve our lives. Since 1970, SEMI has been committed to helping members grow more profitably, create new markets and meet common industry challenges. SEMI maintains offices in Bangalore, Beijing, Berlin, Brussels, Grenoble, Hsinchu, Moscow, San Jose, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.semi.org

About VDMA

The German Engineering Federation (VDMA) represents more than 3,000 companies in the engineering industry, many of which are small and medium sized enterprises. With about 981,000 employees (May 2012) all over Germany and a sales turnover of 209 billion Euros (2012) the industry is the biggest employer and one of the leading sectors of the German industry as a whole. Approximately 100 VDMA member companies are active in the photovoltaic sector, covered by VDMA Photovoltaic Equipment. For more information, visit www.vdma.org/pv